I just had my first bloodwork since going keto about 6 months ago. I expected the lipid panel to look different. I understand that a higher cholesterol and LDL is not necessarily bad. But my husband is concerned. Can anyone recommend one or two really solid journal articles that can help me to convince him that it’s okay to eat this way?
Lipid Panel results are in - Zowza 😳
Luckymisslucy
(Charlotte)
#2
I actually just asked @PaulL for help on this subject matter last night and this is a cut and paste of what he told me. He’s a wealth of knowledge.
Google “David Diamond site:youtube.com” and watch some of the videos that show up. Prof. Diamond is a lively presenter, and he makes a good case. Uffe Ravnskov and he have published several papers on cholesterol and heart disease, which are easily found on PubMed and Google Scholar. (You might try hitting your doctor with some of the citations!)
Ivor Cummins’ site, www.thefatemperor.com, also contains a lot of great information about cholesterol and its role in the body.
DawnMichelle
(Dawn Michelle)
#5
Results from 2012:
Cholesterol - 141 mg/dL
HDL Cholesterol - 53 mg/dL
Triglycerides - 55 mg/dL
Results from 2019:
Cholesterol - 202 mg/dL (Reference range is 0-199 mg/dL)
HDL Cholesterol - 83 mg/dL
LDL Cholesterol - 107 mg/dL
Non-HDL Cholesterol - 119 mg/dL
Triglycerides - 62 mg/dL
Only the new cholesterol is out of range. Looks like my HDL (“good cholesterol”) is contributing to that as much as anything. I’m not concerned. But it’s curious to see these results.
I did tell my Dr. that I was eating keto. She knew enough to ask if I was measuring my ketones. She was not concerned at all which is nice.
David_Stilley
(Full Metal KETO AF)
#6
It all looks good to me. LDL isn’t the issue that it was thought to be in the past. Your triglycerides are fine and HDL is good. Is there a cholesterol : HDL number (ratio)?
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#7
Your trig/HDL ratio is less than 1.0, when anything less than 2.0 is superb! There are people who would commit serious acts of violence to get a ratio that good. That virtually guarantees that your LDL particles are in the healthy Pattern A, so nothing to worry about. Did she order an HbA1C reading? I’ll bet that’s very good, too.
There is actually no proof that cholesterol or LDL or whatever actually has any connection with cardiovascular disease. The studies intended to show such a connection all ended up showing that higher cholesterol/higher LDL actually appears to have a protective effect and is associated with reduced all-cause mortality (low LDL associates with suicide in some studies). I forget the exact percentage, but somewhere between 60 and 90% of people showing up in the emergency room with their first heart attack have normal or low LDL levels. It seems pretty clear that LDL and/or total cholesterol has no causal connection with cardiovascular disease. As Dr. Phinney has said in more than one lecture, “Blaming cholesterol for cardiovascular disease is like blaming fire trucks for fires.”
DawnMichelle
(Dawn Michelle)
#9
Those results were all that were provided. Better than what I got in 2012, but still lacking. My HbA1c is 5.0. I’ve had great glucose tolerance tests in the past and my fasting insulin is low. So diabetes/pre-diabetes is not a concern for me at this time. The reason I’ve gone keto is that it solves the hunger problem and I’m also trying to get rid of these few extra menopausal pounds. It’s going very slowly, but working.
DawnMichelle
(Dawn Michelle)
#11
The panel could have been more comprehensive and included LDL subtypes.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#12
That actually looks fantastic. Your total cholesterol and HDL were way too low before. What were you eating then?
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#13
Plus, those values change all the time. You can’t really compare those results. Heck, I’ve had results two weeks apart that were shockingly different.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#14
For instance, see these:
The highlighted in yellow is after 4.5 days of fasting.
